The Syracuse women’s lacrosse team will face its hardest schedule in years this season. It will face a multitude of ranked opponents, including No. 1 Maryland, who beat Syracuse in the NCAA tournament last season on its way to winning the tournament. To make the schedule even tougher, the majority of SU’s games against those ranked teams are away.

So when unranked Colgate comes to the Carrier Dome on Thursday, it will be an aberration for SU.

The Orange will take on the Raiders on Thursday at 5 p.m. inside the Dome. The game will serve to ease the No. 5 Orange into its highly competitive schedule.

‘We don’t have any scrimmages,’ SU goaltender Liz Hogan said. ‘So it’s nice to be able to play a team close to us and play on our field to really get into the rhythm.’

SU will take the opportunity in its season opener to work out any problems it may have while developing team chemistry. The Orange graduated two of its leading scorers, Halley Quillinan and Christina Dove, so head coach Gary Gait has been moving around some of his players to see where everyone fits best. With eight freshmen joining its squad, Syracuse will be using Colgate as a first look at how the team has come together in the offseason.

Syracuse also kicked off last season against Colgate, cruising to a 17-5 victory. It was Michelle Tumolo’s first collegiate game, and she had a season-high seven points. This year, her role may be a little different as a result of the personnel shifts.

‘We’re going to work around with people,’ Tumolo said. ‘Not everyone’s in a certain spot. I was always in the crease last year, but I might be up top this year. I might be anywhere.’

Another difference in this year’s matchup is Hogan’s absence from the goal. Syracuse’s captain received a red card in last year’s final game, so she is not allowed to play in the season opener. Freshman Alyssa Costantino will man the net, but Gait said the team will not play any differently.

Despite Colgate’s bad reputation, the Orange is watching out for some strength on attack from the Raiders. Gait mentioned Colgate senior Colleen Bubnack and junior Courtney Miller, both midfielders, as offensive threats.

‘They have a couple of players that go really hard to the net,’ Gait said. ‘They’ve got great size. Hopefully what we can do is utilize our speed this year against them like we did last year.’

Aside from taking advantage of his team’s speed, Gait plans to double team some of the Colgate attack to shut down its offense. He has some other plans in the works but wants to keep them within the team until they have been unveiled on the field.

Shortly following Thursday’s game, Syracuse will fly to Palo Alto, Calif., to face No. 14 Stanford on Sunday. This matchup last season resulted in a 16-7 Orange win, but the Cardinals have already beat No. 10 Notre Dame this year. One week after Stanford, No. 7 Virginia comes to town. The Cavaliers beat Syracuse by one goal last year.

This lineup is familiar to the Orange, who played these same three teams to start last season. Tumolo said she hopes this year’s team will be able to do better than last year’s 2-1 opening record.

‘We know how each team plays because we played them,’ Tumolo said. ‘But we have a different team this year.’

That different team will have to come together against Colgate to be successful against the ranked opponents that await SU, Gait said. Thursday will be an opportunity to get all the kinks out before SU is bombarded by ranked opponents.

‘We have an extremely tough schedule the first month, especially when you’re going right out to Stanford, who just upset Notre Dame,’ Gait said. ‘That puts the pressure on, so it’s nice to get at least one game against an unranked opponent to get us going.’

alguggen@syr.edu